This invention is directed to an ear piercing apparatus for making ear piercing safer and easier for both consumers and practitioners. More particularly, the ear piercing apparatus of the present invention permits an automatic and exact adjustment of the attachment position of the clutch on the piercing pin. The present invention provides for a consistent, efficient, and safe method for piercing ears with a variety of delicate and fragile ear piercing pins.
In some prior art ear piercing apparatuses, the piercing is dependent on the hand strength of the operator. The operator has to push the piercing pin through the ear and into the clutch. Preferably, the piercing pin should be pushed exactly as far into the clutch as to accommodate the thickness of the ear being pierced. In other words, the difficult task of positioning the clutch on the piercing pin is left entirely to the practitioner.
In other prior art ear piercing apparatuses, no matter how thick or thin the pierced ear might be, the clutch is placed on the same fixed position on the piercing pin. The problems associated therewith are either left to the customer to endure, or an adjustment of the clutch position is carried out manually after the actual piercing of the ear.
Some of the above described prior art ear piercing apparatuses allow the clutch to be adjusted manually after the ear piercing has taken place. If the customer, who lacks experience in ear piercing procedures, carries out this adjustment himself/herself, there is an obvious risk of infecting the wound or placing the clutch at an incorrect position. If, on the other hand, the practitioner repositions the clutch with his/her bare hands, he/she runs a risk of getting into contact with the customer's blood, which may contain a life-threatening blood virus. The fact that the point of the piercing pin may be "needle sharp" does not make the procedure less hazardous.
The present invention provides for an automatic and exact piercing process that permits the use of fragile piercing pins, such as pins made from pure gold. The head portion of the piercing pin is firmly held within a disposable cartridge and the push rod of the apparatus ejects a holder device towards the clutch so that the piercing pin is firmly held within the holder device until a pair of jaws of the holder device are allowed to open to release the piercing pin including its head portion. The clutch is automatically and correctly positioned on the piercing pin when the piercing pin is ejected through the ear and into the clutch because the piercing apparatus of the present invention has an adjustment mechanism that adjusts the position of the clutch assembly to the thickness of the ear. The correct position of the clutch on the piercing pin is an important feature because if the ear is thin and the clutch is attached too far out on the piercing pin then there is a risk that the head portion of the piercing pin is hanging with increased risk for infection of the ear. If the ear is thick and the clutch is attached too far in on the piercing pin then there is a risk that the ear is slow to heal due to lack of air in the hole of the ear. The adjustment mechanism of the present invention overcomes these deficiencies. The ear piercing apparatus of the present invention provides for a fast, consistent, simple, and safe way of piercing an ear.